Bounty Hunters
by Beastbot X
Summary: The legendary bounty hunters Beastbot and Ramulus end up in the Beast Wars, and assignments are immediately given to them... Second in my Beast Wars series.
1. Part 1

Bounty Hunters, Part One  
by Beastbot

"Tarantulas, I'm sick of this! There's nothing here!"

"Be quiet! I'm certain there's something. Keep digging, Buzzclaw."

Tarantulas and Buzzclaw had been digging for several hours in the area around the stasis pod cache and force field, and still they had found nothing. The hole they were digging was now almost as deep as Tarantulas was tall, spider legs included.

Although Tarantulas was making progress because of his chainsaw-blaster, Buzzclaw had to stick to an old shovel.

As soon as Tarantulas had finished his sentence, Buzzclaw's shovel made a dull clank as it hit something hard.

Tarantulas looked over, and his eye widened.

"See, I told you! Keep digging!"

* * *

Several tiring hours later, Buzzclaw finally set down his shovel.

"That's it, Tarantulas. I'm done. My energon tank is only at ten percent."

Tarantulas reluctantly set down his chainsaw blaster.

"Fine. I guess three square meters of uncovered ruins will have to do for now. Help me dust this off so we can make off the details of this large stone plate we've struck."

The two Predacons started to dust off the fine details of the ruins, revealing a large series of carvings that made no sense at all and two large stone panels.

After a few quick minutes, the Predacons stood up and admired their work.

"Finally. Buzzclaw, get me some energon from back at the base for you and me so we can recharge. It's almost nighttime, so Megatron won't see you coming in. I'll finish up here."

"Sure, Tarantulas."

Buzzclaw stepped back and started to turn around, but accidently stepped on the two stone panels as he did. They sunk about an inch into the ground and made a slight cracking noise.

"Oops."

"Buzzclaw, you idiot! That could be something very import- AHHHHHH!"

Tarantulas screamed as he saw two stasis pods materialize on top of himself and Buzzclaw, crushing them as they fell.

* * *

A few seconds after the stasis pods had been cushioned from their fall by Tarantulas and Buzzclaw, the larger of the two pods, which had fallen on top of Tarantulas, opened up.

"Data tracks recoverable... Matches those of Maximal unit Maximus... Changing data tracks to suit those of protoform... Uploading new data tracks... Data tracks will be completely uploaded within two megacycles... Activating protoform," the pod's computer briefly stated.

A large Transmetal 2 mountain goat cautiously stepped out.

"Ramulus, maximize!"

His ram body seemingly came apart as the ram transformed into a Maximal with some organic fur sticking out of his legs and arms. His large, powerful, hooved legs held up the newcomer, almost as large as Dinobot in robot mode. His horns came off to become a large pulse cannon, and he had two sharp retractable blades with small holes on the ends of them attached to his hands.

As Ramulus was trying to figure out where he was, the smaller stasis pod opened up.

"Data tracks partially recoverable... Matches those of Maximal project B.E.A.S.T... Changing data tracks to suit those of protoform... Uploading new data tracks... Data tracks will be completely uploaded within three megacycles..Activating protoform," the pod's computer said.

A moment later, a very weird-looking creature stepped out.

His body and legs were that of a cougar's, with brown fur. At the tail, however, the fur faded off to reveal a long, snaking velociraptor tail, tan with some blue stripes along it. Where the cougar's neck was supposed to start, the fur faded off into a velciraptor's waist, with the same basic colors as the tail. From there on up, it looked just like a regular velociraptor, with short arms and a protruding mouth. The only thing different was that instead of a velociraptor's two eyes, he has a long red band for an eye, much like that of Scorponok's.

"Beastbot, robot mode!"

His cougar and velociraptor back folded back, and his tail came off and split off to reveal a laser gun. His front cougar legs folded back as well, but his back cougar legs became his robot feet. Two short brown robot arms folded out, and his beast head folded down to become his chest, revealing his robot head. His new head looked much like that of the old Dinobot's, except that there was still that long red band for his eye, and there were some large, protruding teeth coming out of his mouth.

After Beastbot had finished transforming, he picked up his laser quickly.

Ramulus glanced in Beastbot's direction and smirked.

"'Robot mode?' What kind of an activation code is that?", Ramulus asked in a slightly deep, sarcastic voice.

Beastbot seemed slightly annoyed by the question, but answered anyway in a rough voice.

"I'm not sure. I just knew on instinct to say it. What side are you?"

"Maximal. If you're a Predacon, I'll kill ya."

Ramulus quickly tightened his grip on his pulse cannon.

"I'm a...a..." Beastbot quickly searched through his memory banks for an answer. "I- I don't know which side I'm on."

Ramulus sighed and rolled his eyes. "You expect me to buy that? You must be a Predacon."

Ramulus then quickly leveled his cannon at Beastbot.

Beastbot stepped back slightly, in a battle-ready position."I'm telling the truth. You can search my memory banks if you want."

Ramulus slowly put his cannon back down, staring at Beastbot suspiciously. "I don't know- but- I somehow know you're telling the truth all of sudden."

Beastbot was taken aback.

"You do?"

"Yeah- it's kind of like- like- I know you already."

"But we've barely met each other, Ramulus."

"Yeah, I know..."

"Hmm...that's strange...I feel like I've met you, too."

Ramulus pondered Beastbot's statement for a few seconds before changing the subject.

"Oh, well. Hey, do you think there are any others of our kind around here?" Ramulus asked, looking around as he spoke.

Beastbot shrugged. "Probably not. If there were any, then wouldn't they have showed up by now?"

Ramulus then thought for a moment. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Come on, let's go find some permanent shelter while we figure out what's going on."

Both of the robots transformed back to beast mode, climbed out of the small hole they were in, and walked off silently.

A few seconds after they had left, a small groan of pain came out from underneath the larger of the two now empty stasis pods.

* * *

Waspinator was flying around scouting in beast mode, as he usually did every day about dawn.

"Wazzpinator sick of slag missions. Wazzpinator want to fight Maxzimalz. Want to issue formal complaint to Megatron. Then he probably slag Wazzpinator. Wazzpinator don't care, Wazzpinator be happy then. Wouldn't have to -"

Waspinator cut himself off as he saw two small glints in the distance.

"Ooooo! Wazzpinator finally get to engage enemy! Wazzpinator, terrorizze!"

Waspinator transformed to robot mode and flew off, full speed ahead, at the two small glints.

The two small "glints" were Ramulus and Beastbot in their robot modes, fortifiying their home. They had found a small empty cave, and had decided to make it their home. During the night, they had cut some lumber nearby and made a crude fence around the entrance to their cave.

"Can't be too careful," said Beastbot, admiring his and his friend's work. "My memory banks have completely restored themselves now. Now we both remember everything that happened before we arrived in this strange place. Hey, we gonna be bounty hunters like in the old day-"

"Hey, Beastbot- look!"

Ramulus pointed to the sky, revealing a wasp-like Predacon closing in on their position fast.

Ramulus glanced at Beastbot before speaking.

"Let's try approach 2BR."

Both pulled out their guns and leveled them at the Predacon. Without even seeing if it was friend or foe, they shot some blasts at the flying robot, and quickly knicked both of its wings off, making it shriek as it plummeted to the ground.

"We still got it," said Ramulus, putting his cannon back into his subspace. "Let's go find out if that thing is another one of us."

* * *

"Don't hurt Wazzpinator. Wazzpinator do whatever new-bots say."

Ramulus chuckled a bit before looking down at Beastbot, who was only chest height to him. Waspinator was lying on the ground, slightly damaged, before them, holding his hands over his head pitifully. Beastbot quickly glanced back at Ramulus, and then spoke in an unusually deep, menacing voice.

"Who dares disturb the quarters of B.E.A.S.T. and Maximus?"

Waspinator cautiously peeked out from under his arms at the two transformers towering over him.

"Umm..umm.. Wazzpinator. You really B.E.A.S.T. and Maximus? The famous Zybertronian bounty hunters?"

Beastbot smirked and continued.

"Yes. Why do you care? Do you need our services?"

Waspinator thought for a moment before answering.

"Umm...um...Predaconz have big enemy. Name Optimal Optimuz. Can new-botz get him for Wazzpinator and ....and..."

Now it was Waspinator's turn to smirk.

"...and somehow make it look like Wazzpinator did it? Then Wazzpinator be rezpected by Megatron."

Ramulus considered it for a moment before answering.

"Perhaps. There are more of you? Interesting. What do we get in return, then? There is a reason we are called BOUNTY hunters, you know."

"Wazzpinator give you almost anything you azk for! How about Wazzpinator's energon rations for a week?"

Ramulus and Beastbot both shook their heads.

"Two weekz?"

Ramulus and Beastbot both looked at each other, then nodded yes.

"Sure, bug," Ramulus answered. "I'll do the honors. But if you don't pay up, we'll be after you."

Waspinator gulped.

"Wazzpinator obey. Bye."

Waspinator quickly got up and ran away from the two hunters as fast as his legs could carry him.

Ramulus then turned to Beastbot as the two headed back to their "fortress."

"I'll be gone for a few hours tonight, Beastbot. I'm going to 'work'." Ramulus chuckled as Beastbot nodded.

* * *

An extremely battered Tarantulas glared at an equally damaged Buzzclaw. It had been almost half a day since they got smashed by two heavy stasis pods, and they still had several dents and scratches in them. In fact, Tarantulas was so battered that one of his legs wasn't working. They didn't dare go back to the base, however, because Megatron would surely question what they had been doing.

"Tarantulas, why are we heading this way? There's nothing this way but some canyons," Buzzclaw asked.

"I checked the data tracks of the two stasis pods. It matches those of the famous Cybertronian bounty hunters Maximus and B.E.A.S.T. I'm following their energon footprints to see where they went. I have a.....job for them."

"How are you following their footprints?"

"I have an energon-detecting visor over my optic. It highlights in blue their footprints."

"Oh."

Tarantulas stopped limping suddenly and pointed ahead with his finger.

"There! There's some kind of wood fortress there, no doubt the home of those two."

* * *

A few minutes later, Tarantulas shut off his energon visor as they stood at the entrance to the crude fortress. They waited for almost half minute quietly, but they didn't hear a sound, much less see anyone. Tarantulas glanced around suspiciously, pulled out his gun, then stepped in.

"Hello? Anybody home?" Tarantulas nervously asked.

All within a split second, Tarantulas' gun was shot off of his hand, and Beastbot and Ramulus, robot modes, were walking out from the cave, silent as ghosts.

"What the-" Tarantulas stammered as the two hunters pointed their guns at him. He quickly put his hands up in the air.

Beastbot was the first to speak.

"What do you want?"

"I-I have a job for you. You are the bounty hunters Maximus and B.E.A.S.T., right?"

Beastbot and Ramulus both put their guns down slightly before Beastbot answered.

"Names are Beastbot and Ramulus now. You better be tellin' the truth about you havin' a job for us. What's the job?"

"Have you ever heard of Megatron?"

Beastbot seemed confused for a second.

"Umm..yeah. He was the Decepticon leader until he turned into Galvatron. Why?"

Tarantulas shook his head.

"No, no, no. I mean the OTHER Megatron. The one on this planet. The leader of the Predacon forces here."

"Oh. No. Why?" Beastbot answered hesitantly.

"Because I have a mission for you," Tarantulas snickered. "I want you to take out Megatron. I want nothing more than to take over lead of the Predacons here and make them fight and win, not do senseless things like Megatron makes them do, to put it quite simply. I will pay you two-and-a-half POUNDS of energon cubes. That's seventeen whole cubes, you know."

Beastbot chuckled. "My, you certainly have this all planned out, don't you? Very well. But I only accept my payments in advance. If you deliver the energon to me by dusk, then I'll do it tonight. Otherwise, you can forget it."

Tarantulas snickered some more. "Hehehe. You certainly drive a hard bargain, but I guess that's to be expected. I'll be back in about two Earth hours."

Before Beastbot could get in another word, Tarantulas painfully transformed to vehicle mode and took off, with Buzzclaw following close behind.

Beastbot then turned to Ramulus.

"Weird guy, huh?"

Ramulus nodded while still watching Tarantulas travel on the horizon.

Beastbot then transformed to beast mode and then spoke, half to himself.

"I guess we'll both be at 'work' tonight."

* * *

That night, Beastbot sat drinking an energon cube in robot mode while Ramulus sipped up the remains of his one.

"Hey, Ramulus, you sure this energon gonna be safe while we're out kickin' butt tonight?

"Sure it is. No one except Tarantulas, that fuzor, and that wasp thing know we're here, and they won't even think about double-crossing us until we've completed our mission."

"Whatever you say."

With that, both bounty hunters got their rest of their attack gear they had either made or stolen together as Beastbot finished up the last of his energon.

"Stealth device, check, Ramulus," checked off Beastbot as he put the device into his subspace.

"Power tank, check, Beastbot."

"Laser gun, check, Ramulus."

"Pulse cannon, check, Beastbot."

"Grappling pads, check, Ramulus."

"Time bomb, check, Beastbot."

"Okay, then, we're all ready to go," said Beastbot, transforming into beast mode.

"See ya in a few hours," replied Ramulus, transforming to beast mode as well.

The two started off from their base in opposite directions, ready to destroy the leaders of both of the factions.


	2. Part 2

Bounty Hunters, Part Two  
by Beastbot

Ramulus peeked over the side of a large rock just barely enough so that he could see the entrance to the Ark, with Cheetor and Rattrap on guard. Neither seemed to be paying much attention to anything around them.

"Got any fives?" Cheetor asked, sitting down on the ground with a few playing cards in his hand.

"Go fish," Rattrap replied, chuckling a bit.

Cheetor cursed under his breath and picked up another card from the deck sitting beside him.

"Man, Rattrap, I swear you're cheating. This is the fourteenth card I've picked up in a row."

"What? Do you think I'm the kind of guy that would sink to cheating? Don't answer that," Rattrap replied, putting his hand over Cheetor's mouth just as the larger Maximal was about to answer.

Ramulus quickly sank back behind the rock, putting the mouth of his large pulse cannon to his chest as he did so.

_Those idiots_, he thought. _They can't even stay on guard when there might be Predacons lurking around. Oh, well. All the easier for me. Here goes nothing..._

Cringing, Ramulus pulled the trigger on his cannon, blasting a small hole in his chest. It normally would have made a loud noise and would have illuminated the area around the Transmetal 2 quite a bit, but his chest muffled both.

Trying really hard not to yell out in pain, Ramulus then staggered out from behind the rock and headed for Cheetor and Rattrap.

* * *

Cheetor and Rattrap both looked up from their card game and gasped when they saw a large figure staggering toward them from the shadows. Both instinctively drew their guns and pointed them at the creature, who had just now become well illuminated by the lights at the entrance to the Ark. 

Ramulus looked up at them, his face twisted in extreme pain.

"The...Predacons......"

Before Ramulus could say another word, he collapsed onto the ground, entering stasis lock almost immediately afterwards.

Cheetor and Rattrap both looked at each other, then quickly ran toward Ramulus.

* * *

Beastbot stood staring at the Darkside in beast mode, his eye searching around suspiciously for any signs of movement in the night. 

_These Predacons are dumber than I thought. I'm only a nanoklick away from the base and I still don't see anyone on guard duty,_ Beastbot thought to himself.

He cautiously stepped toward the base a few more steps, than stopped suddenly, sniffing the air.

"Energy visor activate."

As soon as Beastbot had whispered the command, a small blue visor slid down over his regular eye. He now could see the base shield- only a few feet in front of him!

"Hmm. Thought so," Beastbot whispered to himself.

The fuzor transformed to robot mode and took out a small device that looked somewhat like a small dagger, except that its blade was glowing blue-green. With his energy visor still down over his eye, he took the blade and carefully cut a small, straight line, about as tall as himself, in the shield. He continued cutting until he had created a small doorway in the shield, the energy on the inside of the doorway dissipating as he completed the door. He then converted to beast mode again and stepped carefully through the shield, undetected.

"Signature damper, activate," Beastbot commanded.

His computer then clicked silently for a few moments before replying.

"Signature dampening successful. Chance of signature detection is 4 of the normal."

Beastbot smirked, then continued on toward the base slowly. He was still uncertain if Sentinel had detected him, but he took the chance anyway and walked within shooting range of the defense guns. He stood silently there for a moment, seeing if they would activate. After it was apparent that Sentinel couldn't detect him, he walked toward a breach made in the ship after it crash-landed on Earth.

"All right, here we go," Beastbot whispered to himself. "Stealth cups activate."

As soon as he had finished the command, small suction cups popped out under his feet.

"Camouflage mode."

Beastbot then turned almost completely invisible. The only hint that he was there was that the background behind him was slightly wavy.

Beastbot then silently tip-toed inside the base and jumped up. His suction pads clamped on to the ceiling, and, after making sure that they stuck to the ceiling properly, crept down the dark hallway in the ship.

* * *

Ramulus cautiously stepped out of the CR chamber, checking over his hands and body to make sure that they were indeed repaired. He then looked up to see the other Maximals staring at him questioningly. 

"Umm, hi. My name's Ramulus. I came out of a stasis pod and had located your base. I was starting to head toward your base when I got attacked by a few Predacons. Although I managed to get away, I was severely damaged and had barely managed to get as far as I did."

The rest of the Maximals then relaxed slightly, obviously relieved that he was definitely a good Maximal. Although Depth Charge had run a few scans on Ramulus while the new Maximal was in the CR chamber to show that his energy signature was a Maximal's, they still could never be too sure.

_He sounds familiar,_ Optimus thought, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Oh well.

Optimal Optimus stepped in front of the other Maximals and greeted Ramulus with open arms.

"Welcome to the Maximals, Ramulus. I'm glad to see that you're doing all right. Come with me, I'll give you a tour of the base."

With that said, Optimus turned around, and, motioning for Ramulus to follow him, trudged out of the room. Ramulus quickly followed.

_This is too easy,_ Ramulus thought.

* * *

Beastbot entered the Predacon command center, practically invisible and hanging upside down from the ceiling above. Without making a sound, he crept down to the ground and retracted his stealth pads back into his feet. After checking that the map Tarantulas had given him earlier of the Darkside was indeed accurate, and that this was the command center, he quickly put the map away and saw Scavenger, back ramrod straight, patrolling the edges of the room, looking for anything that might threaten his royalty. Beastbot sank back into the hallway just enough so that he wouldn't get in the way of Scavenger when the Predacon passed by. A few moments later, as Scavenger marched on by the hallway entrance, Beastbot quickly grabbed Scavenger's head. Before Scavenger could even utter a sound, Beastbot pulled the head cleanly off with his sharp velociraptor claws and laid the head gently on the floor beside him. Just as the rest of Scavenger's limp body was about to clatter to the ground, Beastbot quickly caught it and laid it down gently so it wouldn't make any noise. After that was done, he silently transformed to robot mode and walked onto one of the hover platforms and made his way to the sleeping form of Megatron in the center of the command center. A large shadow, in the shape of a rhino, watched him silently from the hallway entrance behind Beastbot as the fuzor did so.

* * *

"..and here's your quarters, Ramulus. I hope everything's okay, we didn't really have much time to fix it up," Optimus said, gesturing Ramulus into his moderately sized quarters. 

"Oh, it's fine, Optimus," Ramulus said, taking a storage tank from his subspace and fitting it into his arm behind his back. He did all this whie facing Optimus. "I just need to ask one more thing of you."

"What's that, Ramulus?"

"I just wondered if you could... die."

"What the.."

Before Optimus could say any more, Ramulus unsheathed his small spikes on the ends of his hands and plunged them into Optimus' right leg. Within a second, all the power running through Optimus' circuits had been transferred into Ramulus' small storage tank, now completely full. Ramulus then chuckled quietly and took his spikes out of Optimus, retracted them into his hands, and unhooked his storage tank, putting it back into his subspace. Then, he took two of Waspinator's wings that he had knicked off earlier and laid them by Optimus' body. He then peeked out into the hallway, and, after making sure that no one else was around, walked casually out of the hallway. Optimus' eyes did one final flicker and then faded out for the last time.

* * *

Beastbot, on a small hover pad, flew over to where Megatron was peacefully slumbering in the middle on the command center. He quietly tapped Megatron on the shoulder. Megatron's eyes flickered for a second as he woke up, and he turned to Beastbot, surprise etched into his face. 

"I hope you had a nice rule, Megatron. See you where all are one," Beastbot said quickly as his eye started to glow bright red.

Before Megatron could react, Beastbot shot a small laser disk from his eye, cutting Megatron's head neatly off the rest of his body. He then took out his laser gun and continually blasted at Megatron's limp body and appendages, knocked one, then both, of his arms off. He continued firing, knocking off both of Megatron's legs as well. After seeing that Megatron was indeed dead, he put his laser gun back into his subspace and quickly exited the room, leaving the battered bodies of Scavenger and Megatron behind.

* * *

Ramulus strode out of the Ark, looking behind once and a while to make sure no one had discovered Optimus and had come out to attack him yet. Cheetor and Rattrap briefly looked up from their card game that they were playing at the entrance to the base. 

"Eh, where ya goin', Big Ram?"

Ramulus looked down at Rattrap while taking his pulse cannon from his subspace.

"Out for a little stroll. See you when I see you."

That said, Ramulus threw his pulse cannon into the air while barking out the command, "Pulse cannon; hovercraft mode." His pulse cannon, in midair, expanded its horns into what looked like a hoverboard with a small gun in the middle. As it came rushing toward the ground, Ramulus jumped up and landed on it. He then maneuvered the craft like a surfboard out into the night air, leaving Cheetor and Rattrap to their interrupted card game.

* * *

Dinobot Transmetal 2 strode down the hallway in robot mode to the command center for his early morning report. All was quiet on the battle front, but Dinobot was programmed to obey Megatron's orders, and obeying Megatron's orders is what he would do, even if he could see no reason for doing so. 

As he entered the command center, he took one look around and gasped.

Scavenger was lying on the floor with his head torn off. The rest of his body, however, was undamaged. Megatron was not nearly so lucky. His head had been cut off as well, but the rest of his body was damaged beyond repair. Broken wires were everywhere, and all four of his appendages were broken off, and were nowhere to be seen. They had fallen in the lava below after they were shot off Megatron. Mech fluid was dripping from a large gaping hole in Megatron's chest.

"NOOOOO!" cried Dinobot as he hurriedly stepped up on a hover pad and flew over to the command chair where Megatron's body was resting.

* * *

Cheetor had discovered Optimus' unconscious body a few hours before dawn, while checking to see if Ramulus had come back from his stroll yet. What he had found instead was a seemingly undamaged Optimus lying on the ground, limp. Upon closer examination, he made out two small holes in Optimus' leg. 

Waspinator, was all Cheetor thought as he ran to get help from the others. His wings were right there at the scene of the crime. If it's the last thing I do, I'll get him for hurting Bigbot like this.

Now, as Depth Charge and Rattrap helped Cheetor hook Optimus up to a large machine in the command center while Blackarachnia was analyzing the offline Maximal leader at the control panel, everyone was silent, even Depth Charge. Silverbolt was standing silently nearby Blackarachnia.

Blackarachnia pressed a few quick buttons before being the first one to speak.

"His spark is still online, but barely. His body is completely drained of energy. Within a few hours, he'll be permanently dead. Unless you all just happen to have a sparkless protoform around here to transfer his spark into, I'm afraid he's a goner."

Cheetor held back tears as he answered.

"We don't have any blank stasis pods around here. I know where one is, but by the time I get it and bring it back, it'll already be too late."

The rest of the Maximals held back tears as well as they realized the inevitable.

* * *

Prometheus entered Terrorsaur's old quarters in robot mode, and silently closed the door behind him. 

After making sure that no one had seen him come into these quarters, a small fleshy tentacle slithered out of his left optic, with a small device materializing on it as it did. Prometheus quickly pushed the device, causing a large screen to materialize on the wall. A gold visage of Unicron was on the screen. It immediately spoke.

"Are things going as planned?"

"Yes, Tara- er, Unicron."

"Good. We will initiate Program G2B."

With that, the screen quietly dematerialized and the small tentacle wriggled itself back into Prometheus' optic.

* * *

Waspinator and the recently repaired Scavenger hooked up Megatron's battered body to a large anaylzing machine as Dinobot manipulated a few buttons on a control panel nearby. Rampage stood nearby in robot mode, arms folded across his chest, snickering silently. 

"So, this tyrant finally get what he deserves, hmm?" Rampage sarcastically asked as he leaned against a wall behind him.

Dinobot turned around quickly, eyes full of rage.

"Silence, Rampage. I have no time for your yammering now. Megatron is almost dead, and we have no sparkless protoform nearby to-"

A beep interrupted Dinobot as he was scolding Rampage.

"Stasis pod detected four meters from Predacon base. Protoform has no spark," the computer stated.

"What the..?" Dinobot said, him and all the other online Predacons in the room turning their heads toward the main screen.

"This is too good to be true!" Dinobot grinned. "Waspinator and Scavenger, fetch that protoform. We have work to do..."

* * *

The Maximals were being all too silent when a beep sounded on the command console. 

"Stasis pod detected four meters from Maximal base. Protoform has no spark," the computer said.

All the Maximals quickly diverted their attention from Optimus to the command console.

"What...?" Blackarachnia stammered, turning around in her seat. "Depth Charge, you're the biggest. Get that stasis pod."

Depth Charge, stunned by the sudden change in events, ran out of the Ark, saying nothing.

The rest of the Maximals grinned as they turned back to Optimus.

* * *

The Predacons, meanwhile, had hooked up the stasis pod to Megatron's body. Dinobot stood at the controls, punching in a few commands. 

"How long until Megatron's spark goes offline?"

"1.9 Terra minutes," the computer responded.

"Then we have no time. Computer, begin transformation of spark from Unit: Megatron to new protoform!"

"Acknowledged."

For the next thirty seconds, all the Predacons held their breath as the computer transferred the spark from Megatron's body into the protoform. 10 complete, 35, 50......

A few moments later, after the transfer was announced successful by the computer, a large crocodile emerged from the stasis pod.

"Megatron, terrorize!"

The crocodile seemed to fold in on itself as levers flipped and folded in to reveal the new Megatron, about the same size as he was before. His head looked about the same, but his body was very different, being almost entirely green and gold.

All the Predacons, with the exception of Rampage and Tarantulas, who had just entered the room, cheered.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Maximals were doing the same thing to Optimus. As the computer displayed how much of Optimus' spark was transferred into the protoform, all the Maximals waited, their stomachs churning. Finally, the computer announced the transfer successful, and a large gray bat hopped out of the stasis pod. 

"Optimus Primal, maximize!"

The bat transformed into the new Optimus, about the same size as the original one, with large wings extending from his gray and blue body.

The rest of the Maximals all rushed up to talk to their leader about what had happened since he last became unconscious, all of them starting to talk at once.

* * *

Beastbot and Ramulus were relaxing at their base in robot mode when Tarantulas drove up to the base in vehicle mode. Both of the bounty hunters stood up as Tarantulas converted to robot mode. 

Ramulus was the one who spoke first.

"Find our job satisfactory, Tarantulas?"

Tarantulas almost screamed his answer.

"No, you idiots! Megatron still lives! The other Predacons found a sparkless protoform and transferred his spark to it! I want my ENERGON BACK!"

"Sorry, no refunds," replied Beastbot as he fired a laser disk into Tarantulas, knocking the Predacon into stasis lock. Both of the bounty hunters then snickered as they dragged Tarantulas out of their crude fortress.


End file.
